As a nutritional counselor, I am acutely aware that people need to be ready to make change before they are able to make change. Often, people must hear something over and over, in different ways, from different sources or the same way repeatedly, before it really registers. How a person hears and interprets information depends on their mood, attitude, education and social factors.
If you are reading this, you are among many people on a path towards better health. Health is a continuum, were some of us are just starting out by cutting back on processed foods, some of us are decreasing our exposure to chemicals or increasing our consumption of raw foods while some of us are on the extreme side of health, exercising daily and are well read in current health research. We are all striving to make the best choices, everyday, the more we learn about health. I would like to recommend a documentary that might change your life for the healthier. It is called Forks Over Knives.
I remember when my husband watched Forks Over Knives. When the documentary was over he turned to me and said “Let’s be vegetarian.” “Finally,” I thought. The documentary must have resonated with him at that point in his life. The conversion was not difficult for us, as we were already on the very healthy side. We only ate chicken or fish 3 times per week. To supplement the meatless dishes I already made, I got two new vegetarian cookbooks. We decided that we could order meat at restaurants if we wanted; we would just never cook meat at home.
Making dinner became way easier. Many times I went to prepare dinner to realize I forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer. Meat needs to thaw or marinate for hours and requires more cooking time, depending on the recipe. A plant-based diet requires more chopping, but is easier to execute. Unlike meat, frozen veggies can be thrown directly into a warming curry sauce, for example. Contrary to what you might think, we’ve had less food go bad now that we don’t serve meat.
The less chicken and red meat you eat, the heavier and more unpalatable meat becomes, so I have noticed that now we rarely order meat at restaurants. Currently, we still eat wild, low mercury, fish once or twice a week. In case you were wondering, dairy comprises less than 5% of our diet in the form of yogurt and cheese. Really the best way to describe our eating style is that it is a plant-based diet.
Forks Over Knives is a great documentary on food that has the potential to change your life. Don’t watch it until you are ready and willing to change.
______________________________
FYI: Forks Over Knives means “I’m Done.” When you place your fork over your knife in an X on top of your plate it signals to wait staff that you are done and they may clear your plate. If the table service and diners are well versed in table etiquette there would be no reason to ask, “Can I clear your plates.”
Posted by Dani 
